Building Habitat homes in smaller cities challenging

Volunteers Diane Shelander, right, and Jennifer Lesmeister paint the walls of a room in the Women Build Habitat for Humanity project house on Third Street North in St. Cloud Wednesday.(Photo: Dave Schwarz, dschwarz@stcloudtimes.com)Buy Photo

COLD SPRING – Volunteers recently made a long-term home building project in Cold Spring come to fruition — with the first nail.

For four years, Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity worked with local organizers to secure financing, volunteers and a family that qualified for the hand up that the organization promises. Work at the home site started last month.

Around the state, Habitat for Humanity affiliates have had varying levels of success building in outstate Minnesota.

For the local Habitat affiliate, the Cold Spring project was unusual. Since 1989, the affiliate has built 79 homes, but only about 15 percent of them outside the immediate St. Cloud area. Occasionally, homes are built in smaller cities such as Paynesville, St. Joseph or Annandale.

Launching Habitat projects in smaller communities can pose different challenges for organizers, such as securing enough funds, increased costs associated with the project, longer time to completion, finding partner families, rounding up volunteers and dealing with misunderstanding about Habitat's mission.

Jan Plimpton, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Minnesota, works with more than 30 Habitat affiliates to help 290 families each year.

"I know of affiliates where rural projects do take longer," she said. "We also have affiliates where those are not the issues they wrestle with."

"What trend there is, they seem to cost more ... but we've got a full range of experiences that affiliates have," she said.

Every project is different, said Bruce Johnson, executive director of Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity. One renovation was done in four months and some projects take up to four years from the time a local group is organized, he said. On average, projects take 12-18 months, he said.

"It typically depends on available resources, the community we're working in and finding a qualified family, which has been harder in rural communities," he said.

Instead of building, affiliates opt for rehab projects

While Habitat is best known for building homes, sometimes rehabbing an owner-occupied house to keep the available housing stock in good condition is the best thing to do in smaller communities, Plimpton said.

She said the Brush with Kindness program is "designed to help low-income, disabled, and/or elderly families address rehab and repair of their homes. That could include rehabbing (a) roof, or replacing windows or a furnace."

"What we really like to see on those (is) growing awareness in the community — what is the housing stock and how do you preserve it, and how difficult it is for certain people to be able to maintain the housing they grew up in or bought over time," Plimpton said.

The Brush with Kindness program is gaining in popularity. In 2010 in outstate Minnesota, there were 11 of those projects, Plimpton said. "Last year, there were 68, so there's huge growth in that," she said.

Nancy Iglesias, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Winona-Fillmore Counties, said Brush with Kindness is part of the affiliate's strategy.

"It's much easier to actually do ... We're still helping, still accomplishing our goal of eliminating substandard housing. We can help two or three families for a fraction of the cost of what it costs to build a house," she said.

Those renovations come with another positive: "We build some of the most energy-efficient houses in the state, which we're really proud of," Plimpton said. Some heating bills are a tenth of the previous cost.

Iglesias said the Habitat affiliate has experience with building and renovating homes in outlying communities. In 2007, after flooding in Fillmore County, the affiliate came into the area at the city of Rushford's request, a city of about 1,700 people. To date, organizers have built four houses and renovated three or four.

"Everything in a rural community is on a smaller scale. Can we find volunteers we need? Yes, we can. But that nucleus is still a little bit smaller than in a larger area. Can we find the money we need? It's probably not sustainable though, to build houses without some kind of extra help," she said.

In smaller communities, that might mean building a house every three years instead of one a year in a bigger town, she said.

Finding volunteers is not a problem, however.

"Volunteers seem to come out of the woodwork, they're really excited to be involved," she said.

"I think fundraising is always a challenge, but I would say in many ways people in small communities are used to fundraising projects, like for a library or swimming pool," Iglesias said. "We've been very fortunate getting great people ... It's just a challenge to raise the amount of money that you need to build a house."

Grant helps make project a reality in Cold Spring

In Cold Spring, Thrivent Financial awarded a grant of about $72,000, about half of the amount needed to start the project. The grant was part of the Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity program.

"We're still looking for more donations to complete it," said Angie Thaxton, family services director for Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity. "Getting all the pieces in place always takes a little longer in a smaller community."

The remaining funds for the project come through contributions from churches, businesses and individuals. The lot was donated by Ray's Construction Inc. Other sponsors include St. Boniface Catholic Church and the River of Life Assembly of God.

With the Cold Spring project, it was somewhat difficult to find a family that wanted to partner with Habitat.

A Habitat family has to meet specific income guidelines and can't have too much debt or other financial obligations.

Then, they have to find people who want to become a homeowner in a specific community, she said.

"That's a little bit more permanent than signing a lease ... either they want to live in a rural area or they don't," Thaxton said.

"It happens (that they) drop out of the program for different reasons, like they don't want to have the responsibility of home ownership," Thaxton said. "We do find that when it's in a rural community, it makes it that much more difficult with less families to draw from."

Social stigma exists in asking for help

There can be a social stigma in having to ask for help.

When Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity has a public information session, it's not unusual to have people from out of the area show up, said Johnson, the executive director.

"Very often someone from Monticello might show up in St. Cloud ... or in Elk River ... they like a little more anonymity," he said.

"I think sometimes people are hesitant, but I think on the combination with that ... sometimes small towns are more encouraging. They do know people's situations and get behind the families ... It kind of goes both ways," Thaxton said.

Mark Astrup, pastor at Peace Lutheran Church in Cold Spring is part of the team that helped organize the Cold Spring project. He has also worked on Habitat projects in other communities.

And he's seen fear of that stigma play out.

"I think it's important that nonprofits serving organizations be mindful of that (social stigma) and respect the dignity of the people who are forced to come forward and ask for some assistance …," he said. "And to honor and to help them to not to make a big deal about it. ... We're here to help you, we're focusing on improving your situation, not in making an example of how wonderful it is that we can serve you."

"I very much believe in the ... principle of Habitat, it's not a handout, it's a hand up," he said. "I think it's wonderful (to have) 200 sweat equity hours so that (the family has) a great sense of contribution and ownership — a good feeling that goes along with that, also prepares them for continued diligence to ... do everything needed to be a homeowner that's able to stay in their house."

FOR MORE

For information on how to donate, volunteer, become a partner family, visit www.cmhfh.org.

BY THE NUMBERS

Number of homes built by Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity: 79 homes built to date.